The Code of Ethics and the development of the auditing profession in Greece, the period 1992–2002

Various forms of Codes of Ethics have played major roles in the advancement of the accountancy profession in the Anglo-American context. Responding to various legitimation challenges, accountants have drawn upon their ethical arrangements to reinforce claims to “credibility” and “independence” from clients. By doing so, they have sought to persuade social institutions of their “professionalism” and secure the privileges of self-governance and the monopoly of auditing practice. Though the literature has illuminated the role of ethical pronouncements in the ascendancy of the Anglo-American profession, little effort has been made to explore their impact upon the profession in emerging contexts. The case of Greece in the period 1992–2002, for instance, provides an interesting setting of an emerging economy in which to study professional ethics, as the local institute of auditing was restructured according to the Anglo-American professional paradigm following which it faced certain legitimation challenges. This paper investigates the broader background of threats to the Greek auditing profession in the period 1992–2002 and explores whether local auditors relied upon their Code of Ethics and compliance processes to re-establish the image of their institute as a “credible” body. It draws upon the imperialism of influence framework to demonstrate that, within increasingly internationalised contexts, the local accountancy profession tends to resort to professional ethics to confer legitimacy upon its activities and to safeguard its self-governing status.